Volcano - Rán Flygenring

 

The picture book Volcano was awarded the Nordic Council Children and Young People's Literature Prize in 2023. From the jury's motivation:

"This year's winner has created an explosively visual picture book about how wild and uncontrollable nature affects humans. They skilfully weave image and text into a playfully humorous story about a motley crowd of tourists that encounters a volcanic eruption. The story bursts with power, both capturing and propelling our fascination with extreme natural phenomena. Yet it also touches on conflicting emotions that arise as the land collapses, lava flows, and new mountains emerge, as well as the emotions connected to more mundane matters such as a lice epidemic or seeing your surroundings being flooded with tourists. There is tension throughout between the tiny and the gigantic, which gives the story a unique intensity.

The illustrations brim with subtle details that will capture the attention of young readers. […]


Does nature exist only to entertain us, or should we ourselves take greater responsibility for how we interact with it? "Eldgos" gives hope that we can find a way to live in harmony with nature. "

As the Nordic Literature Week celebrates Iceland's independence anniversary in 2024, we join a tourist bus with Cactus in the book Volcano. Cactus is not impressed, but the day takes an unexpected turn...

"Excuse me, but what do you call that?" shouts Cactus, pointing to a patch of something glowing red hot out in the gray lava field."